Last Stand
by V6 Studios
Summary: Reno and Rude can't fight their way out of everything. Even TURKS can fall.


**A Reno X Rude One shot. This was hard to write (emotionally) and is written from Reno's POV. I love them as a pairing and as partners. I dont own either of them..Square does. But if I did...Thinks of all of the positions I would put them in...MUHAHAHAHA... **

"Shit...more of them...I think the building's surrounded yo..." I pause and turn to look down at my partner, slumped on the floor and using a worn mattress to prop himself up with. "Rude?"

He looks at me wearily. I know he's weak right now. Weak and powerless to stop the wave of death from engulfing both of us, but he puts on a tough facade and nods to me. Gods he's so strong. Even facing a certain death he refuses to let me see his fear, instead choosing to remain stoic for my sake.

"So...how many now kid?" I watch as he pointlessly ties another long shred of bloody sheet to his stomach and then leg, his face showing no pain or the suffering I know he must feel.

"Dunno partner. A lot. More than we have bullets for." I look down at the bloody machine gun in my hand and sigh, then back to my lover. "Whadya think we should do?"

I almost smile as Rude gives me a sarcastic glare and looks over at his gun on the floor. "Well, we either let them break that door down and take us out like punks...or..." I watch as he slowly glides his hand along the floor through the dark pools of his own smeared blood and uses his index finger to pull the dark metal weapon towards him. Once in his hand he lay it in his lap with effort and then locks eyes on me. "...or we go out like true TURKs...with our dignity and pride intact." His dark chocolate eyes melt into my own as we stare in silence for a brief moment that seems to last an eternity. "So...what's it gonna be?"

I can't help but think of how we ended up here. At the end of the road, going out in the blaze of glory that I always figured we would but never wanted to admit. Traitors. Traitors to ShinRa and all that we loved. A mission gone completely wrong. Someone had set us up to take this fall and I had a fairly good idea of whom, not needing to voice this to my parter. He could always could read my mind like an exact science. Thats what made Rude and I so amazing together. Our lack of verbal affirmation and our complete and utter trust in one another. I have to admit that facing death was much more comforting with him at my side.

I put down my gun on an old rotting nightstand in the abandoned building that would be our judgment, and take my smokes from my pocket. In the silence of the room all I can hear is the clink of my zippo opening and the sizzle of the flint as it ignites the object I so needed. After a long drag I repocket the lighter and take the large gun up into my hand once more, holding it up to my side and smiling at my parter with the cigarette on the edge of my lips. "TURK's style yo...we go out like men."

He smiles and nods. "Glad you said that. I've never wanted to die like a pussy." I want to reach out and help him as he winces and struggles to stand through his many gunshot wounds but he wouldn't want me to. Rude was the most prideful man I had ever met and I'd be damned if I was going to strip him of his dignity in his last minutes. He uses the wall and the blood soaked mattress to stand, then leans against the wall and looks to the door. "We could put furniture in front of it, but that would only prolong the inevitable for a few more minutes."

I nod in agreement as thick gray smoke trails from my nostrils and into the dimly lit old room. Place must of been a hotel back in it's day. Might of been nice, but now the only customers it saw were the cockroaches and occasional mice running along the floor. "Yeah...let them come Rude...I'm not scared anymore." Inwardly I'm terrified and he knows it. His amber eyes are practically boring holes into my forehead but he just smiles softly and starts to hold his hand out to me when a loud explosion a few floors down causes his eyes to dart to the door. "They're in..."

"I know..." I use the cherry from my lit smoke to ignite another and toss the old butt to the floor, crushing it out with my foot. It's death almost a symbol of my own fire being smoldered out. Irony at it's finest.

"Help me lift this thing..."

I knit my brow and stare at the larger more powerful man in front of me. Rude never asked me to help him, so if he did I knew he really was in bad shape. I set my own gun down and walk to him slowly, using my hands to help him prop the large weapon under his blood soaked arm. The entire room stinks of sweat and iron from our bodies, mixed with mildew and old backed up pipes. Makes me wanna vomit but I hold it together.

"Oh shit man..." I tear a piece of my ripped and bloodied white shirt off and use it to wipe the trail of crimson from the corner of his soft lips, causing him to smile.

"Don't think thats really gonna help Ren...Gonna die anyways..."

With those words I instantly loose the tough guy facade and pull him to me, wrapping my arms tightly around his larger frame and sobbing into the rust colored bandages surrounding his stomach and chest. "Rude..." My voice is so broken and weak, and I swear that it cracks a little when I say his name.

I feel him wrap his free arm around my waist as he lets his forehead rest on my shoulder. "Shhhh...it'll be over soon and then we can be together forever kid...just like we always said we would. Remember the place we picked out? Our grassy mountain top with a never ending purple sunset?"

My tears sting the cuts on my face and neck as I nod and hold him tighter. "Y-Yeah...I remember partner..."

I feel a movement on my shoulder as he smiles softly and places a gentle kiss onto my crimson stained skin. He whispers softly to me, his breath warm and loving on my flesh, almost making me forget the certain death that was no doubt sweeping the building as I held him. "Lets go there then...just you and I." He pulls away and stares deeply into my eyes, his own so tired and powerless looking as the situation crumbled before him. "I love you kid..."

"Love you too Rude...forever..." I close my eyes as our lips touch for a final time, his tongue gently entering my own mouth and dancing with my own just as we had a million times before, except for one difference. We wouldn't be waking up in each others arm's tomorrow. He wouldn't bring me my morning coffee and ruffle my hair. I wouldn't smile and try to hide the fact that just seeing him in any setting gave me an instant hard on. No...never again. So much we still hadn't done together. So much we wanted to do. I fight back more tears and jump as the bangs and crashes got louder and closer. My eyes never leave his until he nods and swallows hard. "Lets do this."

I help him to a far wall and then exhale deeply. "Get em' partner..."

I can't help but smile as he winks at me and gives me a shit eating grin. "And you do the same kid..."

I position myself at his side just as I had done a million times before and hold my gun steadily at my side, my wounded thigh threatening to collapse me to the floor at any moment. "Hey Rude?"

"Humn?"

"Always knew we'd die together but you could of picked a better place to do it. I mean shit...this place is just nasty..."

He laughs softly and turns his head to look down at me. "Sorry bout' that...I should of made better reservations...you always did deserve the best..."

"That's why I ended up with you I think Rude..." We exchange smiles as voices echo through the halls and my big partner raises the gun under his arm with a grunt. "Fuck 'em up Ren..."

"Affirmative partner...fucking to commence..."

As my eyes shake the door is kicked forcefully over and over and I know whats on the other side. No fear Reno...no fear for him...

I spit the cigarette from my lips, my finger twitching like a jacked up seizure on the cold metal trigger. "HURRY UP AND KILL US WILL YA?" I hear Rude laugh at my out burst, his own arm now violently shaking from the effort and strain of holding his large weapon up.

The door flies open and both of us open fire instantly. The soldiers sent to kill us fall to the ground like bloody domino's one after another into a thick crimson heap in the doorway. I moan several times as I hear bullets enter my shoulder and legs, causing me to drop to the floor, my gun still firmly gripped in my hand. Rude drops next to me as another wave of men swarm the doorway. My eyes go wide as he uses his larger body to shield me, screaming out and firing into the pack. As I rest me head against his back, I can hear bullets tearing through him with sickening thick thuds. The wave of men seems to stop for a moment and I watch as my lover, my partner, my world falls to the floor and pants for breath, his life coating the floor in a river of certain death.

I have two options. Drop my weapon and hold my partner, or shoot pointlessly into the men I hear running up the stairs. I throw my gun to the side and take him into my arms as his chest heaves and blood bubbles from his mouth. He looks like he wants to speak but I tell him that I already know. I love him too.

My eyes grow wide as my body jerks several times and falls over onto his. Only another second now. Our eyes meet as I lay draped over him and me almost smiles. Its okay now Rude. Lets go find our mountain now so we can watch the sunset forever.


End file.
